Starship News

[sd455dan]

Delayed again, presently set for 16-Jan, same launch window, that starts 4:00pm CST.
I suspect the forecast 20 mph winds might be the reason, Thursday's forecast is for 15 mph winds, Friday's forecast is back to 20 mph winds... I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't launch this week due to weather.

That makes sense, especially if they attempt another booster catch.

 

[IXLR8]

That makes sense, especially if they attempt another booster catch.

They are going to attempt another booster catch on Launch 7. Apparently on Launch 6 take off, some of the communication equipment atop the tower got destroyed and that is why they didn't attempt a catch on Launch 6. They have added better protection to the comm equipment, added comm redundancy and added radar to the tower to better track the returning booster/ship.

 

[sd455dan]

Watched the Blue Origin Flight at midnight, They failed to land the booster but everything else went really well.

Starship sure takes off and accelerates Much quicker. Glad to see a success for New Glen.

 

[riptides]

Looks like a major malfunction today for SpaceX. Too bad. Keep pushing.

 

[IXLR8]

Flight 7- Booster launch, return and catch successful.
Starship on the other hand appears to have broken up and put on quite the show over the Turks and Cacaos as it disintegrated and the pieces fell to earth.

 

[ruffdog]

I hope the weather is clear. I enjoy watching the launches.


View attachment 793399

I agree.

 

[dstig1]

very cool video!

 

[ruffdog]

We just saw more "stuff" entering our atmosphere last night. Was this more of Elon's junk?

Meteor-like object observed in Madison area, capturing the eyes of Madisonians

 

[riptides]

Interesting development. Could push SpaceX and chemical rocketry out of business.

Russia develops plasma rocket engine prototype for Mars missions

Scientists at Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom have reported developing a plasma engine for deep space travel.

www.rdworldonline.com

 

[ponytug]

I have my doubts. These have been around in one form or another for some time. I'm not sure why this development got so much press, but it did get a ton of press.

The old phrase for it was often "ion drive" or "ion thrust" rather than plasma, but the principle is the same. Most modern satellites use Xenon or Argon for ion thrust in orbit. Thrust goes as 1/2*mv*v, so using increasingly heavy ions increases thrust linearly, and accelerating the ions to higher velocities increases thrust at the square of the increase in velocity. They were proposing using fairly light mass, but high velocities.

The plasma drive proposes to get to higher velocities with magnets (heavy) rather than RF, or high voltage as has been currently done.

I will be more impressed if the company gets a rocket to Mars, and puts it into orbit and then returns.

Who me, a skeptic?

All the best,

Peter